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25
Jan

Happy Birthday To Us

categories The Store    

On January 24, 2007, Twilight Teez opened its electronic doors for the first time.

On January 25, 2007, we received our first order.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a full year since we started this business.  When you think about it, a year really isn’t that long, yet so much can happen during that time.  We’ve learned so much and we are constantly expressing our gratitude to Stephenie Meyer and her family for allowing us to be a part of this very extraordinary universe that she has created.  It has opened up so many opportunities for Sharon and me (yes that’s correct grammar).  We’ve had so many great experiences and the ability to meet so many great Twilight fans.  Thanks go out to all of you who have made this an incredible first year in business.

So what has happened, anyway?  Let me do a recap of the year’s events, starting in…

January

…when we open the doors to Twilight Teez and unleash upon the world for the second time the Edward and Jacob fanclub t-shirts.  Our history has always been that we were simply taking up where Stephenie left off.  It takes about a day for the announcement to start hitting our fellow Twilighters, but come January 25 we start to receive orders.  We are excited about the prospects of what the future would hold.  Certain that there is a future, but not sure of how long that future will be, we decide that we will just take it one day at a time.  Soon, those days lead to…

February

…when we start to receive the first of our stock inventory and are able to start processing all of the pre-orders from the previous two weeks.  The job is a bit overwhelming, to be sure.  There are hundreds of orders to fill and it feels like we will never get caught up.  Little do we know that this is only a precursor of what is to come later on in the year.  Many more orders keep pouring in on a daily basis and to make matters worse, we discover that the company we chose to make our shirts simply can’t keep up with our demand.  The quality of the products are diminishing as the one-man screen printing company tries to keep up, having to make as many as 500 shirts a week.  It is obvious that we are going to have to do something.  And we start that something in…

March

…when we do some more research and find a company not far from our home town with an automated screen-printing system that can turn out the number of shirts that we need on a weekly basis.  Understanding that there is no ill feelings between us, we part ways with the first printing company and contract with our new supplier to print our shirts.  It is a good decision for all involved.  The quality of the shirts increases and our business begins to flourish.  At this time, plans start forming for a new character shirt and for a promotional event to help celebrate the upcoming third book in the Twilight Series.  Things are starting to look up, and beginning in…

April

…we are able to launch a brand new product in the form of the Alice shirt.  This product is remarkable in that it is the first product we have that is designed for guys as well as girls.  The Alice design marks the first product designed by an artist who will later introduce his own line of shirts, Daymond Hoffman.  Stephenie is so pleased with the outcome of the Alice design that she commissions him to design a special shirt specific to the promotional event that will become known as the Eclipse Prom.  The Alice shirt is a big success, and turns out to be hugely popular among the female fans, prompting us to consider releasing a version for women.  All of this is good, but the real excitement is all about Eclipse, the publishers of which having now issued an official release date of August 7, 2007.  And speaking of Eclipse, in…

May

…the event to attend is the Eclipse Prom, a huge promotional event held in Tempe which is modeled around the prom scene in Twilight.  People from all over the country, and even the world, come dressed in their best prom dresses and tuxes, armed to the teeth with Twilight books and cameras.  Tickets to the first event are so popular that a second event is scheduled.  Both events sell out within hours and are huge successes, with fans getting their pictures taken with Edward and Jacob, and Stephenie Meyer reading the first chapter of Eclipse and signing books.  We are happy to be a part of it as well, with a small booth that allows us to sell the special Eclipse Prom shirts designed by Daymond.  And there is a number of after parties, too.  A Jacob Black party is held by a small band of Jacob fans, which Stephenie herself attends.  All in all, it is a great day to be a Twilight fan.  But as with all good things, it eventually comes to an end.  Life moves forward, but for many of us, life doen’t get interesting again until…

August

…when the long anticipated Eclipse was finally released.  For some, life pretty much is put on hold as we dealv into the continuing saga that is Edward and Bella.  We learn of the fates of some characters, and add to the history and mystery of others.  We learn of the origins of the werewolves.  Events take place which forever change the lives of our favorite heroine and heroes.  Some learn all of this in a matter of nanoseconds, while others take as long as several hours to read through the book.  And then, almost as quickly as it had started, the talk switches to the release of Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final book in the series.  The burning question is still unanswered; will Bella be converted to vampirism?

For the Schade family, our own personal excitement bursts forth at the same time the book is released, as we welcome the newest Schadeling into our fold.  Adam Keith, known affectionately as AdamBoy (among other things), is born on August 8, 2007.  He grabs the hearts and souls (and anything else he can get his hands on) of the entire family.  Nobody is immune to his infectious smile and laughter.  He arrives four weeks early but wastes no time in getting a firm grasp on life.  He is a wonderful spirit and blessing to our family.

So things are pretty active for us at the beginning of the month, but seem to quiet down for most of us during the second half.  It isn’t until the end of…

September

…when things here at Twilight Teez start to heat up again.  At one point, someone casually mentions that it would be really cool to manufacture an authorized version of the bracelet given to Bella by Jacob in Eclipse.  But as is so often the case around here, a casual mention is sometimes all that’s needed to spark a blaze of excitement.  Through what will later be determined as a fateful contact, we just happen to get a call from a customer who just happens to make custom jewelry.  Before we know it, ideas are flying around and in…

October

…a prototype of the bracelet is created and sent to Stephenie for final approval.  We have to work out a lot of logistics with the bracelet.  For example, the book describes the wolf charm as being hand-carved from wood.  In reality, mass producing such a carving would prove to be impractical, if not impossible.  If made from wood, mass production would require molding the wolf from a wood-based casting material that would ultimately prove too fragile to mass market.  So the decision was made to hand carve each wolf from copper, which provides a more durable material while maintaining the color that is described in the book.  By the end of the month, we have a product that we feel was of a high enough quality that we can provide it to Stephenie’s very demanding fan base.  It is also decided, again sparked by a casual mentioning of the concept, that we can increase the value of the bracelet by offering a limited edition version.  All of the bracelets come with a certificate of authenticity, but the limited versions will be numbered and include a certificate personally signed by Stephenie Meyer. 

During this time, a contest is held by Stephenie Meyer and her publisher to create five new character slogans in line with the ones that already exist for Edward, Jacob, and Alice.  The characters involved are Bella, Carlisle, Emmett, Esme, and Jasper.  Winning entries will receive a copy of the Twilight saga in audio book format.  Stephenie receives thousands of entires, and in…

November

…the winners are announced. The new slogans are immediately put onto my plate to get designed and ready for placement on shirts.  By now, we are pretty well set in the way things are running.  The final bracelet design is approved by Stephenie, we are quite comfortable with our 20-order-a-day routine, the character shirt designs have begun, and we were all ready to move into the holiday season.  We know to expect an increase in business.  What we don’t know was to what extent that increase will be.  Our thoughts are maybe we would see an increase of about 200 percent, but history will later show that we will be wrong.  Very wrong.

On November 27, 2007 at noon Arizona time, the dam brakes.

We introduce Bella’s Bracelet and make it available for pre-order.  The excited reaction from the Twilight community is evident when all 213 of the Signature Edition versions sell out in less than 36 hours.  The Christmas sales season is off and it blasts out of the starting gate at breakneck speed.  Our actual sales don’t just exceed our expectations; they blow them clear out of the water.  Instead of the expected 200% increase, we see an 800% increase!  And things don’t show any signs of slowing down as we head into…

December

…where things just keep on going.  While we do see an initial slow-down of sales after the first couple of days, the sale of Bella’s Bracelets and our regular t-shirts remain at a steady 150 orders per day all the way up until Christmas.  The onslaught prompts us to, for the first time in our short history, hire several temporary crew members in order to keep up with the demand.  We are totally taken by surprise by the level of activity we experience.  While we are grateful for the business, the onslaught is taking its toll on us as well.  Stress levels hit new records in the Schade household, and everyone – even our children – feel the impact.  I find myself constantly remembering the one piece of advice that we received from an uncle just before we opened for business back in January; "Be prepared for success."  Reflecting on the current level of business, it is apparent to me that we never were prepared.  Lesson learned.

Eventually things do start to slow down, and now we find ourselves back in January and finally getting caught up on all of the pre-orders for the bracelets.  The year ahead is full of promise as we get ready to introduce a number of new products, including finally being able to create the five new character shirts that were decided upon back in November.  Bella’s Bracelet is still selling strong, and in the coming months we have a few other surprises for you.  In all, it’s been a fantastic first year, and we have everyone out there to thank for it.  So, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much.

Happy birthday to us!

21
Jan

Gift Vouchers Are Here

categories The Store    

Over the course of the last year, we have been wanting to implement a new set of products into our store offerings.  We’ve had many inquiries into these, and now we can finally say we have them available.  I’m talking, of course, about the entire collected works of Barry Manilow.

Ha ha!  I’m kidding, of course.  What I am referring to is gift vouchers, and at long last, we finally have them.  Here’s how they work.

  1. Select a voucher just like you would select any other product.  You may select from $25.00, $50.00, and $100.00 values.  Those are the only ones we have at the moment, though other values are planned.  These are also in US dollars.  You can combine these as well to create "customized" voucher account values.  For example, you can purchase 3 $25.00 vouchers for a total of $75.00 in your voucher account.
  2. Once you have placed the vouchers in your shopping cart, you check out just as you would if you were buying a phsyical product.  The only difference here is, if the vouchers are the only items in your shopping cart, you will not be asked for your shipping information.  I mean, there isn’t anything to ship, so why even ask, right?  Of course, if there are other items in your cart that’s a different story.
  3. The rest of the checkout process is precisely the same as buying any other product.  You’ll select a payment option and then confirm your order. 
  4. Gift vouchers balances are not available to you immediately.  For security purposes, your vouchers will be made available to you as soon as we are able to verify payment.  The following table shows when you can expect your voucher balance to be available for use:
If you pay by…   Your vouchers will be available…
credit/debit card  within 24 hours of your purchase. 
check/money order   as soon as your check or money order clears.

Once we release your voucher balance, you will receive an e-mail notification from us letting you know that your balance is now available for you to use.

How do I use my Voucher Balance?

Vouchers are, under most circumstances, purchased with the intent of giving them as gifts to others.  That is undoubtedly what the primary use of our gift voucher system will be.  When you log into your account on our store, you will have access to your voucher balance and the ability to e-mail this balance, or any part of it, to a receiving party.  To access your voucher balance and the links to e-mail your balance to someone, simply log into your account, the click the General Information link within the My Account Info box on the left side of the screen.  The bottom of that page will display your current voucher balance (minus any pending voucher approvals) and show a link to send the gift voucher to someone.  You will need to provide your recipient’s name, e-mail address as well as a voucher amount.  You will also have the option to include a message to the recipient if you desire.

The person receiving the gift voucher will receive an e-mail with a special link to our site.  If they do not already have an account with us, they will be required to create one in order to redeem the voucher.  They can create the account at that time or later.  As long as they are using the link in the e-mail, they will be able to redeem the voucher and place it in their voucher balance.  There is no waiting period for the recipient to be able to use their voucher balance.  As soon as they log into our store from the link in the e-mail, the balance is available for them to use.

Currently, our system only provides a method to e-mail gift vouchers to others.  We do not have a method for printing physical cards which can be subsequently given as a gift.  This is a feature that we hope to implement sometime in the future.

How do I use a voucher to purchase items from the store?

If you have funds in your Gift Voucher Account, you can use those funds to purchase other items in our store. At the checkout stage, an extra box will appear. Selecting this box will apply those funds in your Gift Voucher Account. Please note, you will still have to select another payment method if there is not enough in your Gift Voucher Account to cover the cost of your purchase. If you have more funds in your Gift Voucher Account than the total cost of your purchase the balance will be left in you Gift Voucher Account for the future.

One thing to take note of: If you have more funds in your gift voucher balance than the cost of your order, you must use your gift voucher balance.  No other payment options will be offered, so if you want pay for your order with something other than your gift voucher balance, this will not be possible.  This also affects your ability to add to your gift voucher balance if the value of the new gift vouchers you wish to buy are less than your current gift voucher balance.  This is a bug in our program and we are working to fix this issue.  Hopefully, it won’t cause too much of a problem.  There is a work-around.  It’s kind of a pain in the toenail, but if anyone needs it, just send us an e-mail.

You can find the gift vouchers under the Gift Vouchers category on our store.

-Brian

18
Jan

Where In The Name Of Carlisle Are The Bracelets?

categories Bella's Bracelet, The Store    

You paid for them.  You gave out your hard-earned money.  And you are wondering where they are.  We totally understand, as we would be wanting to know the same thing.  Let us just say that the bracelets are in complete shipping mode as I type this.  We have had – and I am not making this up – over 1,500 bracelets to send out just from our pre-order phase.  That’s a lot for a shipping crew of only four people to handle, so we do ask for your patience.  But we are on schedule, and everything is getting out the door just as we had expected it to.  Here’s the 411 (I use that term as if I’m some cutting-edge hip young person).

After that, we will be back on our regular shipping schedule.  Please keep in mind, and I feel a need to emphasize this point, when we say an order will be shipped by a certain date, that does not mean that is when you will receive it.  It means that’s the latest date it will leave our facility.

How Long Will It Take For My Order To Arrive?

Orders with Express Shipping will arrive 1 to 2 days after they leave our facility.  Orders with Priority Shipping will arrive at your deliver address in about 3 to 5 days (not including Sundays).

I Paid For Express Delivery, But It Took Six Weeks Before You Shipped My Order.

We stated up front on our web site that Bella’s Bracelet would not begin shipping until the first part of January at the earliest.  We are processing the orders in the order they were received, and we have over 1,500 to do.  This means that if you ordered a bracelet mid-december, we have to get through all of the other orders prior to yours first.  That takes some time to do.  We simply ask that you be a little more patient.  We promise, your order will be shipped, and we are on track to meet the shipping dates I mentioned above.  We will honor all shipping options selected for your order.

I Paid For Express Delivery, But I Would Like To Change To Priority.

If you find that you’d like to change your shipping option to Priority Mail and your order has no yet shipped, please use our Contact Us page to let us know.  We will gladly change your shipping to Priority and refund you the difference between the two shipping options.

 

I Received My Bracelet And It Was Damaged.  How Can I Get This Problem Fixed?

Returning the bracelet for repair requires a slightly different process than our normal return/exchange policy covers.  Please use our Contact Us page to send us a note describing the problem with the bracelet.  We will get back to you right away with instructions on how to correct the situation.

I Received My Bracelet, But It Does Not Fit Properly. How Can I Fix This Problem?

If the bracelet is too big, then the quickest way to resize it is to simply take it to any local jeweler and they should be able to help you out.  If they end up removing links (and they most likely will) make sure you tell them to remove links from between the charms.  Trust us. 

If the bracelet is too small, then use our Contact Us page to send us a note and we will work with you to resolve the problem.

For those who are looking for the bracelet itself, the product page is here.

I think that’s all of the major questions we’ve been asked.  We have been inundated with e-mails asking when the bracelets will be shipped.  Please forgive us if we have not responded to you right away.  Receiving several 10’s of e-mails asking the same question has overwhelmed us a bit.  Hopefully this post will help answer some questions, but please e-mail us if your question wasn’t answered here.

-Brian

4
Jan

What In The Name Of Ben Happened?!

categories News, The Store    

Just when we thought it was safe to go back on the Internet!

Alright, now let’s not beat around the bush, here.  Something happened to the web site that made it unavailable…again.  This post is going to try to explain a little bit about what happened.  Be warned – it’s long.

Now I’m a guy of the male gender, and because of this I will have to get into technical details.  If you don’t want technical details, here’s the summary: We moved from one web hosting service provider to another, and that moved caused some unexpected down time.  For those who want more details, here we go.

Understand that web hosting is pretty straight forward.  In order for communication to happen across the Internet, a computer must have a unique network address. This address is very similar to the unique address that your home has on your particular street, in your particular city and state (or province), in your particular country, on your particular planet (I’m from the planet Mars, if you must know).  Unlike your home address, which is mostly words, a network address on the Internet is strictly a numbers game.  If you have ever played around with the network settings on your computer, you might have come across a number such as 64.126.24.15 (this particular number is arbitrary, and is only used for an example).  That is your Internet Protocol, or IP, address.  This is how the Internet runs.  All computers – including web servers – are accessed via numbered IP addresses similar to the one I just gave.  Addresses can range from 1.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.254.  Even our web site is accessed by an IP address.

"But, Brian," you are saying to yourself.  "I don’t type a number into my web browser when I want to access a web site.  I type in a name, like www.twilightteez.com."  Yes, you do.  And so do most people accessing the web.  But ultimately, that name, called a domain name, is translated into an IP address number which is used to access the web site.  The way this is done is by a service on the Internet called DNS.  DNS stands for Domain Name Service.  Think of it as the phonebook for the Internet.  When a computer makes a request for a page from a server, it first looks up the domain name you typed in the DNS database.  There are thousands of DNS servers across the Internet.  Your computer will ask the nearest DNS server (usually belonging to your ISP) to look up the domain name you typed; www.twilightteez.com.  Your DNS server will look through the DNS database and if it finds the name you asked for, will return to your computer the IP address for that domain.  Your computer will then access the Internet with the appropriate IP address to get the information you requested.  A more detailed explanation of how DNS works can be found right here.

Nice explanation, right?  So how does this relate to the problem that we had?  Well, when you register a domain name you have to get your domain name into the DNS database.  Because there are so many DNS servers, it can take up to 24 to 48 hours for your domain to be propogated to the rest of the Internet.  The company from which you registered your domain name, called a registrar, must tell the DNS servers what your domain’s IP address is.  This IP address is going to be provided to you by the company you use to host your web site.

When you move to a new hosting company, you’re going to receive a new IP address.  This also has to be propogated to the DNS server community in order for the Internet to find your new location.  Under normal circumstances, this propogation is seemless and hardly noticed by visitors to the web site involved.

In our case, not only did we move to a new hosting company, we also moved the registration of our domain to a new company (new registrar).  In order to do this, the new registrar must request from the old registrar that the domain be released.  The old registrar usually informs the owner of the domain that the request was made, and that permission must be granted to continue with the move.  This is where things broke down for us.  Our old registrar and hosting company failed to inform me that I needed to approve the request.  Even after I called them to ask them if I needed to do anything, they explicitly stated that I did not have to do anything and that everything would be taken care of.  It turns out, they lied (and not for the first time).  It wasn’t until nearly 24 hours later that I figured out that I needed to approve the request.  Notice that I said "figured out".  Never during this entire process was I told that I had to do something.  I found out on my own.  This is not what I consider good customer relations. Once I gave the approval, things came back fairly quickly.

So, we’re now back online and everything’s running smoothly so far.  Our site is now firmly seated at our new host, and as far as I can tell, we’re here for good.  Of course, now that I typed that line, something just broke.

-Brian